Five Reasons Why I'm Looking Forward To "Age of Ultron"

- by The Rajun Cajun, 8 March 2013

With Marvel’s newest event, "Age of Ultron", on its way, come in and sit down while I learn you something about why I hate myself for looking forward to it!

It’s no secret that Marvel's "Big Events" are something that has undeniably been getting staler and staler. They all promise huge changes, but almost always result in predictable and pointless character deaths, obvious cash-grabbing scenes that pit hero against hero, and leave their fans empty wallets because of the unimportant tie-ins and so on. Of course, these are apparently what sell, so as a longtime fan of the characters and a handful of Marvel's creators, I have to endure and adapt, despite how I feel about the company and they way they do business: I simply don't buy them. I haven't bought a single event series since the utter trash that was Siege, and my wallet (and brain, for that matter) has never been happier. I also have a huge dislike for the creators, or, the self-proclaimed "Marvel Architects" that are constantly pumping these events out, but more detail on that later.

Until very recently, something's happened that I'm frankly just not proud of. Folks, despite all the monotonous events and killings and blah, blah, blah, I've realized something: I'm actually looking forward to this one. And I hate myself for it. But, to justify it to myself, I need to write an awesome article about it on the almighty interwebz site that is Trash Mutant, so here it goes. These are my top five reasons as to why I'm looking forward to Age of Ultron.

"Age of Ultron" #1 cover by Adi Granov.

1. HEROES ARE FIGHTING VILLAINS AGAIN

Remember the good old days when Iron Man fought Mandarin, Spider-Man battled Green Goblin, the X-Men defeated Magneto, and the Avengers saved the world from Kang the Conqueror and nobody made a big deal about it? I understand and accept the fact that pitting heroes against heroes have always been a part of the mighty Marvel way of doing things, ever since the beginning when the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner clashed during the Golden Age. Yes, those stories were fun, and it's always cool to see a nicely-written battle between characters like Hulk and Thing or Spider-Man and Wolverine, but frankly, after Civil War, I'm bored with it.

Oh, memories. Get 'im, Spidey!

When was the last time Spider-Man fought Green Goblin or the X-Men fought Arcade and called it a night? Ya know, when they fought bad guys? Beginning with Civil War, heroes were fighting heroes, and that hasn’t really stopped since... well... since. It hasn't. I mean, Jesus, the last "big event" was the Avengers vs. X-Men for crying out loud.

The saddest thing about that event, in my opinion, was that it was obvious that the story and characters meant absolutely nothing to the creative teams that were producing them. The only real pull for that specific event was "Hey guys, who'd win: Captain America or Cyclops? What about Thor vs. Magneto?" and so on and so forth. With Age of Ultron, we'll be seeing the Marvel heroes battle a big-time bad guy again, and that's extremely refreshing if you step back and think about it.

2. IT'S ULTRON

It's no secret that I love Hank Pym. I'm a firm believer that he, next to Daredevil and the Thing are Marvel's absolute best characters, despite the fact that almost everyone in the internet community disagrees with me on that front, especially regarding Dr. Hank Pym. With that in mind, I'm also a huge fan of just about any character that associates themselves with the proclaimed "Scientist Supreme," including Scott Lang, Janet Van Dyne, Eric O'Grady, Bill Foster, and of course, Ultron.

Just look how damn menacing he is! And he's back!

On top of being both Pym's greatest and worst creation imaginable, Ultron is responsible for both Vision and Jocasta, two excellent characters in their own right. Even still, Ultron, even standing next to the likes of Loki and Kang, is without a doubt the Avengers' greatest foe, in my humble opinion. He always comes back, and when he does, there's absolute hell to pay. It will be a pleasure to see an excellent villain assume his vengeance on Earth's Mightiest Heroes and, hopefully, his daddy.

3. BRYAN HITCH

If there was ever an artist that I could lock in my basement and force them to draw anything and everything, it would be Mr. Bryan Hitch. His work on The Ultimates and JLA is phenomenal, and that's all there is to it. I love Bryan Hitch, and if you don't, we can't be friends. Truth be told, I wish I could add more to this point, but I can't, so here are some pretty pictures he drew:

4. BENDIS'S GOODBYE

Oh, Brian Michael Bendis. If it wasn't for your work on Ultimate Spider-Man, I might've never given comicbooks a chance. His Daredevil was superb, and he does excellent work on solo heroes doing solo things. I respect him as a man (I follow him on Twitter and everything!), but Jesus tap-dancing Christ he sucks at writing the Avengers.

We hardly knew thee. Now get out.

I stood by Disassembled, and I even stood by the decision of giving Spider-Man and Wolverine a spot on my favorite Marvel superhero team for the obvious cash-grab, but... I can't anymore. After the events of Siege (I'm disgusted that it took me that long), I had to put down the books... All of them. I haven't purchased an Avengers title since then, and absolutely seized the day when Jonathan Hickman took over the brand. It was the bestest day ever! Anyway, perhaps it wasn't all him, as the suits have the final say as to what they want their characters to do at the end of the day, but I just couldn't anymore. The stupid Spider-Man jokes about Danny's, Luke and Jessica's boring-ass, plot device of a child, and those issues where all the Avengers would do is literally sit around and eat food in the mansion are all I'll remember about his long, choke-hold of a run. He might have put the Avengers back on the map, but... not like this, ya know? With Age of Ultron, this will mark the end of the Bendis reign on my Avengers, and it's a damn good riddance. Sorry, X-Fans and Guardians of the Galaxy Guys, but you can keep him.

5. A STORY THAT WANTS TO BE TOLD

I'll be the first one to tell you that Avengers vs. X-Men was all about the Benjamins. Money, money, money, mon-ey! MOOOONEEEEEY! (Brownie points if you read that in the song melody.) Anyway, as I mentioned in reason number one, all AvX was, was an excuse to get their heroes to fight each other because the average Joe just eats that stuff up. Unlike the huge cash-grab that was that horrific event, this looks like a story that genuinely wants to be told. I mean, think about it: it's been on the back-burner for the better part of a few years, so I figure that if it wasn't awful, they would have scrapped it by now, right? Right?! I know it might sound naive, but the thought of this idea just makes me happy. A story that wants to be told is far more interesting than a story that needs to be told, and I think that Age of Ultron is just one of those stories that wanted to be told.

So, despite how I feel about all of Marvel's "Big Events" since the kick-starting Avengers: Disassembled (with a few exceptions), it's very strange to me that I could be looking forward to this one-- especially since Bendis is behind the pen.

I don't know why I'm using an image of Abigail Brand here.

I understand wholeheartedly that many of you in this fine community will disagree with what I had to say, but I just needed to open up about it, as a) it’s here and we can’t do anything about it, and b) it's the internet and everyone's allowed to be heard up in here. I wish I can confidently tell you that you should pick this book up and all that, but... I'm scared to do it. Marvel's just hurt me too many times, and I'm a strong woman that don't be needin' no abusive-ass man. (Kidding. I'm a man. Promise.) But yeah, I'm looking forward to this book, I hate myself for it, and that's my sad, sad tale.


And that's all I have to say about that! So what say you, Trash Mutant? Will you pick up Age of Ultron? Are you looking forward to what this event has in store for Marvel? Leave your comments below, like our Facebook page, and yadda, yadda, yadda, plug, plug, plug. Be good to one another!

Tagged: comics.

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